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Merveille wants to motivate others with her blogs

(Photo: Mette Koors & Anne M. Lykkegaard)

At first, Merveille Musungay kept her blog anonymous, but given that she wanted to encourage and motivate others, she had to put herself out there. Merveille Musungay is CBS WIRE’s new blogger, and she will blog about failure, how to battle stress, and her everyday life as a CBS student.

Anne M. Lykkegaard

Journalist

Merveille Musungay

Blogger

Merveille Musungay talks openly about how she dropped out of the University of Southern Denmark due to stress in 2016. It was a difficult time, but instead of closing up about it; she wants to inspire, motivate, and encourage others who might be in the same position.

“It’s not hard for me to talk about stress, but it was hard to admit that I failed when dropping out,” she says.

Nevertheless, Merveille Musungay, who is now studing a Bachelor in English and Organizational Communication at CBS, started writing blogs anonymously about her struggles and how to prevent failure.

“Writing about stress and my thoughts on dropping out have become a form of self-motivation, and I wanted to pass that motivation on to others. But to do so, I needed – after some time – to reveal my identity. I had to do so, otherwise people wouldn’t take me seriously,” she says.

Now, Merveille Musungay is moving a part of her blogging activities to CBS WIRE, and she hopes that by writing about stress, failure, career, and experiences from the life of a 25-year-old, she can show students and staff alike a new perspective on their own lives.

“Some people might think that they want to give up. I gave up once and it was a good choice for me. But if people read my blogs, they might gain another perspective and ask questions about their own decisions,” she says.

(Photo: Mette Koors & Anne M. Lykkegaard)

Merveille Musungay explains that she is the one among her friends, who gladly shares advice. In that sense, it felt natural to start a blog and help more people than just her friends.

“After revealing my identity, my friends and readers have given me positive comments on the blogs, which has encouraged me to continue writing. However, it also makes me want to work harder. I have to practice what I preach on the blog. I can’t just give up like that. But I want to make it clear that everyone can fail and be stressed out. It’s not just students,” she says.

Merveille Musungay has yet another hope for her blog. By putting her life and thoughts out there, she hopes that it reminds people that not everything is pure joy.

“I think we are poor at talking about the competitiveness existing in our generation. You need to remember that there is a façade on social media. Not everything is good and excellent. You don’t know if the one posting great and jolly photos on Instagram is having a breakdown at home. I want this blog to educate people and remind them that we are just human,” she says.

Merveilles blog: I began to doubt myself

Have you ever tried to be a part of a study group and the members of the group underestimated you? I have…

I am sitting with my study group, working on a 15-page assignment. Suddenly I feel left out and slightly invisible! They are sharing their ideas without including me! I am trying to come with my contributions and ideas, however, I am still feeling invisible and ignored. Due to that, I have become more and more quiet during group works. Why is this happening to me?

By being overlooked, it seemed as if my fellow group members formed a negative opinion of my work ethic and performance. However, a part of me started to think that it perhaps could have been my lack of contributions. I realised that they perceived me as the less intelligent one and it affected me.

However, I did not necessarily believe in being less intelligent, yet, I knew that I had to improve myself before I began to believe in that lie.

In the midst of all verbal and nonverbal feedbacks, I began to doubt myself. I lost faith in myself, my abilities to work on a school assignment and even things that had nothing to do with my studies!

I know what I have in me and I always want to show it; I therefore decided to get myself together and change their opinions of me! What I did in order to change their opinion of me was to force myself to study smarter. I firstly started asking myself these questions: “What am I doing wrong?” “How can I improve myself?”

The way I answered these questions was by starting to be ahead of them. Naturally, I am very competitive and at that period of time I felt as if I was losing.

What I am currently doing in order to improve myself is preparation. I prepare myself before meeting with my study group. I do the assignments ahead and form ideas before meeting with them. This is due to building my confidence and decreasing the doubts I had in me.

What I am currently doing is not necessarily about proving myself to others. It is, however, about improving myself and reminding myself of how smart I truly am and how I can be able to see the fruits of my labour.

Are you in the same situation as I was in, I want to firstly advise you to believe in your abilities. When I began to doubt myself, I tried to remember the times where I was doing great in my studies. In case of doubts, remind yourself of how great you are and why you were accepted at CBS!